Five Ulster men have been named among the 32 strong squad - captain Rory Best, Iain Henderson and Jacob Stockdale, who were all part of the Six Nations Grand Slam winning squad, as well as Ulster Player of the Year John Cooney and Rob Herring.

The summer of 2010 was the last time that Ireland last played the Wallabies in Australia with the hosts winning 22-15 at the Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane. Ireland return to Suncorp for the first Test of the series on Saturday 9th June.

Ireland will play their first Test against Australia in Melbourne since 2008 where last time out the Wallabies claimed the victory 18-12. The second Test of the 2018 Tour will take place at AAMI Park on Saturday 16th June.

The final Test of the series will take place on Saturday 23rd June at the Allianz Stadium in Sydney. Australia hosted Ireland at this venue is 1994 with the Wallabies winning 32-18.

Ireland Head Coach Joe Schmidt, commented, “This has probably been the most difficult selection process for the coaching group to date. We sat down on Monday morning to review the last pieces of footage and to discuss the balance and combinations that we felt we might need in Australia.

At midday today (Wednesday) we made the final decisions which included a number of very tough calls and some players are incredibly unlucky to miss out on selection.

Over the past couple of months the national coaches have spent time in the provinces and been in communication with the provincial coaches who have done a super job in managing the players across the season.

The coaching group are excited by the challenge that this three Test tour will present and from talking to the players we get a sense that they too are excited about going on Tour and testing themselves against one of the best sides in the world in their own backyard.”

ohn Cooney is the statistical winner in the inaugural regular Pro14 season.

The decision by David Nucifora to deny Ruan Pienaar a final contract caused a rare show of total unity in Ulster Rugby last year. Every tier of the Belfast structure complained about the IRFU decision to force another Dublin-born scrumhalf, via Connacht, on them in place of their Springbok hero.

It will never be known how great a loss Pienaar has been but Cooney was a revelation throughout Ulster’s annus horribilis.

The 28-year-old walks away with four statistical accolades as the league’s top points scorer (160), most try assists (10), most penalties (30) and, of lesser importance, the most passes (1410).

He came second in the “clean breaks” category with 24, two shy of the Ospreys Canadian winger Jeff Hassler, and also showed his versatility when shifting on occasion to outhalf.

Good on Red Herring as well though I suspect James Tracey will feel a bit hard done by. Feck him.

I'd have been just as happy if Schmidt had just pick the Mexicans.

Support the team and coaching staff. Forget the rest,BUT NEVER MOVE ON.

FIRFU - FU'CK YOU ONE AND ALL, CAVING IN TO SPONSORS, SACKING THE INNOCENT FOR A FEW DOLLARS MORE, SHAMEFUL BASTA'RDS. YOU'VE LOST MY SUPPORT & I HOPE MORE ULSTERMEN & WOMEN

I don’t know about streets ahead but I’d prefer him at 10 to Cooney. It’s maybe unfair on Cooney as we haven’t seen that much of him this year at 10 &when we did he was probably playing outside Shanahan which throws a different light on it. They are probably 2 good bench options for Joe as they cover multiple positions.

"But going forward, at Ulster Rugby, one thing will never change. As long as this great club exists, the person and the player, Nevin Spence, will never be forgotten."

BaggyTrousers wrote:Well deserved for Cooney, I saw this this morning:

ohn Cooney is the statistical winner in the inaugural regular Pro14 season.

The decision by David Nucifora to deny Ruan Pienaar a final contract caused a rare show of total unity in Ulster Rugby last year. Every tier of the Belfast structure complained about the IRFU decision to force another Dublin-born scrumhalf, via Connacht, on them in place of their Springbok hero.

It will never be known how great a loss Pienaar has been but Cooney was a revelation throughout Ulster’s annus horribilis.

The 28-year-old walks away with four statistical accolades as the league’s top points scorer (160), most try assists (10), most penalties (30) and, of lesser importance, the most passes (1410).

He came second in the “clean breaks” category with 24, two shy of the Ospreys Canadian winger Jeff Hassler, and also showed his versatility when shifting on occasion to outhalf.

Good on Red Herring as well though I suspect James Tracey will feel a bit hard done by. Feck him.

I'd have been just as happy if Schmidt had just pick the Mexicans.

Never understood how Tracey managed to get picked in the fist place. Ordinary at best, with many Irish hookers a better option.